Yellow Monday. LONG LIVE THE KING!!

11/28/06

Nowadays, you can tell if it is Monday by looking around on the street of Bangkok. Everywhere is painted by Thai people who wear yellow shirts to show their love and loyalty to one of our greatest kings and to celebrate the most joyful year of our country. It is our king’s Diamond Jubilee year.

Why yellow and Monday? Our king was born on Monday and yellow is a color of Monday. So everyone- individuals and companies’ employees- is encouraged to wear yellow t-shirts every Monday.

Our king is the most respectful icon in the country. By constitution, the King is not allowed to intervene to the politics but whenever our society was in jeopardy; our king was always the savoir who everyone was looking for. Most of the time, he did not have to directly involve in the chaos but his appearance on the media showing his concern about situation could stop any hostility. Everyone loves the King because he has dedicated his whole life to develop our country. He has initiated thousands of projects to help the poor and the have-nots who every past and present Thai government has ignored. I cannot imagine how Thailand would be without our greatest king. Thai people would be poorer, the environment would be worse and the country would be in the hand of the most corrupted politicians.

The picture of our King sitting on the throne outside the palace looking down the huge space that was filled with millions of Thai people wearing yellow was like the sunflower field that there was no horizon in sight. It was very magnificent for everyone who sees that picture. I cannot imagine how hot it would be on that day in particular when millions of people were packed together. But everyone was still standing there for hours just to see the King waving his hand for couple minutes. Everybody was harmoniously chanting, “Love Live the King” and a lot of people could not hold their tears of joy and love towards our beloved King. My mom and sisters were crying when they watched it live on TV.

Even though I do not wear yellow on every Monday, I also want to say LONG LIVE TO THE GREATEST KING!!!

Tae Athikomvittaya